Thursday, February 05, 2015

What Does It Mean by 'I'm Fasting Facebook'?

Time flies, people. It was now first week of February, yes, one month just passed by. You may have completed a project; or wrote a book; or sang a song; or won a game; or had a yawn; no matter how much things you had done, it was one month used.

One of the few things I did in January was fasting Facebook. Not that I hate Facebook, or was planning to stage a raging war against it, I simply had a few reasons that drove me to this motivation.

First, let me explain what it meant by fasting Facebook. In fact, it was not a total social media shutdown. What happened was, instead of swiping my phone and open the Facebook app, I will pause and ask myself if that action was necessary and beneficial, what was the purpose of my action. This did not apply to Facebook only, but to all of my social media app.

Social media, in my opinion, was not just a trend or icon during our generation. It represented our social behaviour and was meant to help us improve our civilization. Hence, I felt a responsibility to not abuse such wonderful creation but to make full use and be a responsible netizen. There are so many useful and constructive things you could do through social media: spread good things, teach interesting information and connect with people upon important and handy subjects.

However, one must be careful of the side effects of social media too. To me, it should not be a place for me to boast about myself and get some virtual recognition, which probably meant nothing in real. It should not be a place where I spend my time, just because I did not think through what I should be doing at that very moment. It should not be an excuse to ignore my friend's conversation over a gathering. And it certainly should not be a pillar, for me to rely my life on.

I, myself, was a person who was not very well equipped with social skill. My survival rate in the real world, would not have stand a chance at all. And it was really tempting, to dive into virtual world, because it was easier to talk to people that way, it was less scary to 'be' with a person, it was way more convenient to send things in text rather than requiring myself to talk, plus I could avoid all the eye contact, as much as I could. Trust me, this part of social media, was one of the stronger appeals to me. And I was there once, when I was in my teen. I was glad I passed through that stage, sometimes lamenting of the time I wasted on it - but again, without those period of time, I might not have realized the emptiness of all these.

Therefore, in this new year and coming years or whenever, I decided to be mindful over my usage of social media. I've even return to one of the app which I did not touch previously, Instagram. To fast is not to avoid, but to accept it with grace and with mind and will power, practising conscientiousness over it. I hope I would at least give it a try and make this work, and I hope you enjoy my little thoughts on this.